Finding Work: Hints for Actors

Paperwork is an essential part of making the rounds; and there is a lot of it. Beginning actors must practically run an office to sell themselves properly, for in most cases, without strong aid from an agent, actors can only succeed in getting into offices by sending some paper in first. The mail carrier can get in where the actor is refused. The three "P's" apply to this aspect of the job search: patience, persistence, and postage.

Did you ever stop to realize what happens when an office receives 50 to 100 mailings from actors in a single day? You must distribute pictures, resumes, and letters--but whether or not they will work to your benefit or end up in the wastebasket is something else again. Obviously, your mailings and deliveries must be as effective as possible, for not only is their preparation time consuming, but they are expensive as well. Here are several useful hints for actors to keep in mind when looking for work.

• Every mailing should have your name, address, and phone number clearly printed on each piece of paper. This goes for photographs, resumes, pieces of notepaper, clippings, or programs.
  

Except in rare cases, a complicated stack of reading materials is a pure waste when sent to a casting director. Sending a program might prove you were in a show, but a statement on your resume is easier to file and check. The fewer words you send, the more chance every word will be read. If you must send more than one envelope, be careful to attach all the pieces so that the person opening the envelope cannot avoid removing the entire contents at once. A piece of paper left unnoticed in a discarded envelope does no one any good.

• Limit your resume to a single page, with your experience grouped under appropriate headings, such as "Broadway," "Films," "Television."
  

The most important items in a resume are vital statistics (height, weight, color of eyes, and hair), how to contact you and your professional engagements. Experience in school, community, or amateur theatre is helpful if that's all you've had, but once you have a few professional engagements, be certain they hit the reader's eye first.

Then it's time to reduce pre-professional experience to a simple sentence or paragraph, such as "five years' experience acting and stage managing in community theatre," or perhaps a succinct listing under 'Training." Include your height, weight, the age range you can portray competently, special abilities such as dancing, singing, dialects, etc., and your union affiliations. When you make rounds, don't wait to write your particulars in each office. Be prepared simply to hand over the material and make a graceful exit before you wear out your welcome.

Make your resume simple, direct, and short. And, above all, be honest. Omit unimportant details so that the reader's attention is taken only by the items that will strongly influence your being hired. For Broadway experience, the titles of the plays are enough. For stock the names of the theaters and one or two titles tell a great deal. A long list of the roles played is rarely more than skimmed. Leave something for your interviewer to ask you when you meet in person. Don't mention something in which you know you weren't very good. Sometimes, by being too complete and specific, you place your qualifications within narrow confines and lose out on an interview. Say too much and there's no reason for them to find out anything more about you.

When you write your resume in longhand, you take a calculated risk that someone won't be able to read your writing. Type your resume, and, have copies professionally duplicated. There are many small print shops that specialize in typing and reproducing resumes, and the price is nominal.

• Attach your resume firmly to the reverse side of your photograph.
  

A resume carefully glued, taped, stapled, or actually printed directly on the reverse side of a picture will never get separated from that picture in an overstuffed file. A resume by itself is worthless and usually gets thrown out; a picture without a resume is not worth much more. Most casting files are set up for 8 x 10 photographs because that is the size of the majority of pictures the producer receives. Most pictures and composites are printed eight inches across and ten inches down. If yours has the longer measurement across, someone going through the file quickly may not stop to turn the entire stack sideways to get a good look at you. If your photograph is too small, it may fall to the bottom of the file and be unnoticed or lost completely. If your photograph is too large, it may not get into the file at all. If your resume is larger than your photograph, the edges get torn, curled, or otherwise messed- again finding the attention of the nearest wastepaper basket. A standard piece of typing paper may look the same size as the standard photo, but it is usually 1/2 inch wider and an inch longer. Cut it down!

• Try to select one good un-retouched picture that shows your personality as well as your features. If you need more than one picture to advertise yourself, consider a composite instead of separate photos.
  

If you send more than one picture, staple them so that they stay together in a file, but put your name, address, and phone number on each, just to be safe. However, you can get a composite printed in quantity for little additional expense with two, three, or more pictures on one page. These composites usually are more useful for seeking work in commercials. Seldom are they an advantage for theatrical casting. They should be used only when the added pictures really show a contrasting (and legitimate) characteristic. Most people can make a variety of grimaces without proving the existence of talent. Producers and directors usually have enough intelligence to realize that the actor who is photographed smiling is capable of appearing without the smile, if called upon to do so. You can also credit most directors with the intelligence to know that an actor can change hairstyle (and color).

Character actors might benefit from showing a variety of pictures, or a bald man might show himself with and without a toupee, but before you go to that trouble and investment, make this little investigation. Look carefully through a copy of any of the casting directories published in cooperation with Equity, AFTRA, or SAG. Imagine that you are a director or an agent. Look at the number of people who feel they are adequately represented by a single photo. Look at the people who use two photos. Judge each pair of photos and ask yourself these questions: Do the photos really show an unexpected contrast? Is one photo obviously much older than the other (and therefore valueless)? Is the contrast legitimately useful, or merely a caricature? Do you really feel you know more about the performer's talents because two pictures were used instead of one?

• Don't send "matte" photos. Glossies are usually cheaper and will do the job as well
  
  
• Don't send a picture that doesn't look like you or that you can't make yourself look like.
  

A beautiful and flattering picture may be fine on top of a piano in your mother's living room, but if a photograph gets you an interview and you come in looking like another person, you're wasting your interviewer's time and your own. On the other side of the coin, the interviewer may be looking for someone who looks the way you really look-perhaps not as glamorous as you'd wish, but nevertheless, "the real you"-and your picture may be bypassed as not the right type. A picture taken in your past may remind you of more prosperous days, but it probably won't help get your name on a contract.

A word about selecting a photographer: Every actor needs good professional photographs, and there are hundreds of photographers available. Be cautious, however. It is wise to select a photographer carefully and to know how much you need and what you may reasonably pay. Before selecting a photographer, check out the ads in the trade publications, ask your coach or teacher for advice, ask your friends, and look for pictures you like and ask who took them. Look at samples of work. It is important to use someone whose work pleases you and with whom you feel comfortable and at ease. Relaxation is a key element in a professionally useful picture. Then work out the arrangements beforehand. What is the cost? Who keeps the negatives? How many enlargements do you get? How much time and film will be used? Where will the session take place? How long must you wait for your photo session? What guarantees, if any, will you get? How long will it be before you get your pictures? When must payment be made? Remember, this is an extremely competitive field and you may not receive every advantage a photographer is willing to grant if you do not ask for it.

• If you send a fancy mailing piece, plan it for the file where you hope it will be kept.
  

Occasionally, you might accomplish something special that you want to bring vividly to the attention of the producer--perhaps great personal notices in an unusual role. In this case, consider sending copies of your notices only if the city or the critic is really well known and the notices ecstatic. If you've played in a small town, the local paper's review will not necessarily attest to professional standards of performance. If the New York Times says merely that you're "charming," you might pass out cigars, but don't pass out the notice. Carefully consider whether what you mail will really demonstrate professional caliber.

• Don't send any material through the mail that you expect to have returned, unless you enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
  

Even if you do this, you're at the mercy of the efficiency of the office secretary. Besides, any material you send may do its best work weeks or months after it reaches the office. If you send a stamped postcard for a reply, that may be helpful. But don't feel resentful if you never get the card back. The producer may not be able to see you and may be too swamped to send even the simplest reply. If you don't get an answer, try having some compassion for the office that receives enormous loads of mail. "To me, the cardinal sin is addressing a card or letter to 'Whom It May Concern,'" says McKinley Alexander, head of Showbiz Entertainment Talent and Literary Agency in Los Angeles, in an article in AFTRA Magazine, the official publication of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "Call and get the name of a specific person. If you take enough time to send a letter and a first-class postage stamp, you should at least know who you're sending it to."

• Take all casting "tips" (published or verbal) with a grain of salt.
  

When a publication that advises actors on casting information carries a misstatement, hundreds of actors may deluge an unsuspecting office with visits and phone calls. This might be a tribute to the publication, but it doesn't make the printed word correct. No matter how polite the secretary tries to be, there is often an actor who insists that he or she is being given an unfair brush off. Because it was published, the actor thinks it must be reliable. When an actor is nasty to a secretary, nothing is accomplished.

Publications, tips, suggestions from friends, and all manner of leads are important and helpful. But remember the possibility that the tip is wrong. When it's right, be happy. When it's wrong, be philosophical.

• If you belong to a union, be certain that it always has your correct address, phone number, and message service number.
  

Most actors would be astounded to know the hours that are sometimes spent in offices trying to track down an actor whom someone remembers and is anxious to reach. I know one particular case where an office tried desperately to reach an actor for a leading role and could find him nowhere. A year later, when the road company was being cast, the actor turned up asking for the part. He got the part in the road company, but no one will ever know what he missed the year before.

The membership departments of Equity, AFTRA, and SAG constantly receive phone calls from production offices asking for members' addresses, and they will give out numbers of agents, business managers or answering services, but not personal information. This is a valuable service to every performer and is supported by their dues. Support it by your personal efficiency as well.

• A telephone number that will always be answered during business hours should be part of your basic professional equipment.
  

It is vital that you be reachable by phone at all times. All the preceding advice is useless if the producer can't get in touch with you once the decision has been made to see you. The cost of professional message services is relatively reasonable (ranging from less than $15 a month to more than $20). When you are looking for work, a message service is as important as your room and board. If you live at home and someone will always be there to take messages graciously and get the complete message, that's fine. But if the phone is covered only at irregular intervals, or if the person who answers is short-tempered, hard of hearing, has difficulty speaking English, or has any other problem taking messages, invest in a message service. This goes for hotel or apartment switchboards also, when the service is undependable. An electronic answering device on your telephone also can be used. But be sure you have a way of checking messages at regular intervals. A brief straight-forward message is best. Stay away from "cutesy" or overlong messages. Prospective employers don't have the time to listen to them and may be annoyed by having to listen to a lot of talk, music, and sound effects before being able to leave a message.

• Whatever you do to reach your customer, use good taste.
  

Sometimes desperation pushes people into the use of tasteless or even fraudulent means to gain attention. Occasionally, we even see an example of this paying off-a gimmick publicity campaign will skyrocket someone of questionable talent to fame. However, instances of such success are rare, and always we hope that "talent will out."

A lie on a resume is most often found out. The ethics of this should be implicit in every resume. There are dozens of valueless crutches that a desperate aspirant will try. One that surprises me most is the phone call made to a producer or director long after office hours. When a producer's apartment or home serves also as an office, respect the producer's privacy. Don't phone after six, or at the latest, seven o'clock. Every once in a while I'll hear a producer say, "What are actors coming to these days? I got a call in the middle of the night from someone asking for an interview!" This happens more often than you'd think. Even when you're answering a producer's message to return a call, don't call after six or seven o'clock. If a producer wants you so urgently that you're asked to call at any hour of the night, it will be so specified in the message.

Don't misuse the custom of writing "personal" on the outside of an envelope. Years ago, this had a meaning; secretaries respected it; occasionally they still do. However, if you are writing to a director or producer about a job, you're writing about your profession. Although it has personal importance to you, it can hardly be considered "personal" by the producer or director. If the job of a secretary or assistant is to open and read mail, this is being done by order of the producer. You gain nothing by misrepresentation, except to undermine further a tradition of value.